10 Proven and Tested Tips to Extend Battery Life on Android

by Shubham Agarwal

The tasks today’s smartphones perform are more demanding than ever. And to accommodate growing needs, processors have become more powerful and screens have gotten larger.

Sadly, lithium-ion batteries haven’t made as much as progress. This leaves you to rely solely on software for longer-lasting endurance. Here are some practical tips for improving the battery life on an Android phone.

1. Take Control of Your Location

The most drastic way to improve your phone’s battery life is to shut off the GPS function entirely. In reality, though, that’s not usually practical. Therefore, we instead recommend taking control of how your phone and apps use location.

For starters, unless you have active navigation on apps like Google Maps, switch to the Device Only location mode (on Android Oreo and earlier). In that state, your phone’s coordinates are determined only through GPS information. On the Battery Saving and High Accuracy modes, the phone employs several other modules including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. This consumes more battery life and usually is not necessary.

In addition, you should also revoke the location permission for apps that don’t require it all the time. That blocks them from using your location in the background. You can do so by heading into Settings > Apps & notifications > Advanced > App permissions.

2. Switch to the Dark Side

If your phone sports an OLED screen, switching to a dark theme helps to preserve the battery. Since OLED displays can disable individual pixels, backgrounds with deep blacks allow them to consume less power.

You can take advantage of this in many ways. You can begin by applying a dark wallpaper, enabling a system-wide dark theme if your phone has one, and enabling the night mode on compatible apps like Twitter, Pocket, and more. We’ve covered some great dark-themed Android apps you should try.

3. Manually Disable Screen Pixels

If you’re not comfortable with darker gradients, you can also manually switch off pixels through a third-party app called Pixoff. The app can also employ one of several available grid patterns to quickly, for instance, deactivate half of the pixels.

Unless you’re watching a movie or consuming other content in HD, you won’t notice much of a drop in quality, especially if you have a 1080p screen or higher. A few manufacturers like Samsung also include a setting that allows you to reduce the display’s resolution.

4. Turn Off Automatic Wi-Fi

Since the Oreo update, Android comes with a feature that continues to look for open Wi-Fi networks even when you’ve disabled Wi-Fi. To turn it off, open Settings > Network & internet > Wi-Fi. Under Wi-Fi preferences, uncheck the Turn on Wi-Fi automatically option.

5. Limit Apps Running in the Background

Most apps you use are active even after you exit them. That’s where Android’s app-specific battery tools enter.

With a simple switch, you can completely restrict an app from accessing the battery in the background. Find this at Settings > Apps & Notifications and there, inside the specific app’s page, tap Advanced > Battery > Background restriction.

If you have an older phone, you can also try a third-party app called Greenify. This automatically stops apps from consuming resources in the background. However, we recommend using the native feature on modern devices since it generally works better than third-party solutions.

6. Manage Background Data Access for Each App

Similarly, you can cut off data access for apps you don’t think should use it in the background. To reach this setting, follow the steps in #5 above but instead of Battery, select Data Usage.

7. Monitor Misbehaving Apps

Your battery life can take a big hit if an app doesn’t work like it’s supposed to. This could be caused by anything from a bug to a deliberate aggressive background feature. You can check this by heading into Settings > Battery > Menu > Battery Usage to see which apps have drained the most of it.

If there’s an app you don’t use much, you should uninstall it and monitor the battery for a day to see if it improves. You can also force-close the app and give it another shot. If nothing proves useful, get rid of it and switch to an alternative. And make sure you don’t have any of the worst Android battery killers on your phone.

8. Switch to Lite or Progressive Web Apps

Another nifty method that doesn’t require much sacrifice and still extends your phone’s battery life is switching to lite or progressive web apps. These are slimmed-down versions of apps available in a browser. Companies offer them to make the experience better on underpowered phones. They take fewer resources, but you won’t miss out on much.

9. Disable Google Assistant

While Google Assistant is a handy tool to have for fun and work, it’s also one of the Android features that constantly gobbles up your phone’s energy. It’s listening for the wake command, is connected to your location for instantly fetching contextual results, and more. If you don’t heavily depend on Google Assistant, it’s best to shutter it.

10. Sync Settings

Notifications are important. But if you find them intrusive and hate the persistent stream of pings, you should try disabling auto-sync altogether. That way, you’ll only see new content when you open an app and refresh it manually.

Since apps won’t constantly refresh themselves in the background to feed you new information, this can save you a ton of battery life too. To disable auto-sync, visit Settings > Accounts and there, the Automatically sync data options should be available at the bottom. You can also disable sync on a per-app basis in most apps.

Need More Battery Life? Try Advanced Methods

The aforementioned tips don’t guarantee an increase in battery life. And even if they do prove helpful, there’s a good chance you won’t conjure up a ton of extra juice.